treasuresofnecastlefromthemacquarieera a · the discovery of the wallis album in a cupboard in...

A Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

B i Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

A State Library of NSW amp Newcastle Art Gallery partnership exhibition

Sponsored by Noble Resources International Australia

iii Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

exhibition amp catalogue details

Foreword

The State Library of NSW is delighted to be presenting this exhibition Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era in partnership with Newcastle Art Gallery

The discovery of the Wallis album in a cupboard in Ontario Canada was part of the impetus for this stunning exhibition The album brilliantly depicts the early European settlement of Newcastle or Coal River as it was then known This treasured heirloom is Captain James Wallisrsquo personal record of his time in NSW mdashclearly a high point in his career as a British colonial officer What is so special about the album is that it includes original watercolours and drawings which show how interested he was in this new country and in its people He made friends with some local Indigenous Awakabal people and painted them from life adding their names

In addition to laying the foundations for the city and port which Newcastle became Wallis was a patron of art and craft He commissioned paintings and engravings by convict artists and had the incomparably wonderful Collectorrsquos Chest made as a gift for Governor Macquarie Returning to Newcastle for the first time in 195 years thanks to support from Noble Resources International Australia and the partnership between the Newcastle Art Gallery and the State Library of NSW the Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest is a marvellous centrepiece of this exhibition which has been expertly brought together by Emeritus Curator Elizabeth Ellis

We know you will enjoy this very special exhibition and thank Newcastle Art Gallery for their enthusiasm and assistance

Dr Alex Byrne NSW State Librarian amp Chief Executive

Never did we think Newcastle would see the Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest return to the place of its birth So important is this object to the early days of Newcastle settlement that over the years there have been many requests from various organisations to have the chest return to Newcastle

Now not only the chest but a collective group of rare works will provide one of the most comprehensive views of colonial Newcastle ever exhibited due to the partnership formed by the State Library of NSW and Newcastle Art Gallery The State Libraryrsquos Wallis album launched at the Newcastle Art Gallery last year makes a welcome return and the Newcastle Art Galleryrsquos illustrated Joseph Lycett book (1824) recently acquired will be on public display for the first time

We too are extremely grateful for the support of exhibition sponsors Noble Resources International Australia and also for the enthusiasm and genuine interest in partnering with NSW regional centres displayed by NSW State Librarian Alex Byrne Library Council of NSW President Rob Thomas the Library Council and key staff of the State Library To have the curatorial involvement of Emeritus Curator Elizabeth Ellis whose publication Rare and Curious provides an in-depth study of the Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest is a particular pleasure

This exhibition will help to redefine Newcastle mdash both past and present mdash as a place of artistic achievement and natural beauty rather than simply a place of coal and hard labour

Ron Ramsey Director Newcastle Art Gallery

iv Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era 1

The NewcasTle academy arTiN a coloNial

ouTposT The scenery around was beautiful twas near the close of one

of those delightful days almost peculiar to New South Wales (James Wallis Ireland circa 1835 Memoir)

Over a period of ten years in the early 19th century an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in the remote penal settlement of Newcastle It had been established in 1804 as a place of secondary punishment for convicts from Sydney after the discovery of coal in the cliffs at the harbour entrance great midden of shells for lime burning and rich resources of timber in the hinterland

In 1810 at the beginning of Lachlan Macquariersquos long term as Governor of New South Wales the settlement consisted of a few rows of huts housing its convict inhabitants and a small garrison of soldiers clustered beneath a high hill with the great rocky promontory of present day Fort Scratchley and steep cliffs on the seaward side

During the next decade it was in this unlikely setting that colonial Australiarsquos first spontaneous art movement mdash a lsquoNewcastle Academyrsquo mdash emerged as an immediate visual response to the landscape its original Indigenous inhabitants and the local fauna and flora Between 1812 and 1822 a remarkable legacy of works of art was created in Newcastle through the chance association of a succession of the garrisonrsquos artistically inclined military officers and a few convicts in their charge with skills as painters engravers and craftsmen

The common theme of this output was a celebration of the location in all its variety and splendour resulting in a rather different interpretation to the more generally accepted view that convict-era Newcastle was lsquothe Hell of New South Walesrsquo1 This was a period when there was avid interest and curiosity in Britain and Europe for information both written and visual about newly discovered places at the farthest ends of the earth The potential for convict artists to assist with this recording was too valuable a resource to be ignored Indeed two of Newcastlersquos commandants during this decade selected convict artisans as their personal servants to work with them on ex officio art projects

The Macquarie

collecTorrsquos chesT

c 1818 XR 69

2 3 Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

Right Black swan

fRom selecT speciMens

froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouRs and ink

This Bird [the Black Swan] the existence of which until the discovery of this Country

was unknown and which by thousands is still doubted (Thomas Skottowe Newcastle

1813 Select Specimens from Nature )

In mid-1811 Governor Macquarie appointed twenty-five-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Skottowe of the 73rd (Highland) Regiment as commandant of the Newcastle settlement Skottowe appears to have had some previous amateur interest in natural history and also possibly in art (one of his fellow officers was Alexander Huey who later had a short career as a miniaturist) But he appears to have decided to embark on an ambitious illustrated manuscript for possible publication only because of the presence in Newcastle of Irish convict Richard Browne Born in Dublin in 1776 Browne arrived in Sydney in July 1811 and by October of the same year was despatched to Newcastle for committing a secondary offence in Sydney

Browne had already come to the notice of Absalom West the entrepreneurial Sydney publisher of the first sets of engraved views drawn and printed in the colony

Browne contributed two images to the series of Newcastle and surroundings dated 30 November 1812 under the name of lsquoTrsquo or lsquoIrsquo R Browne

In his work for Skottowe he clearly struggled with depicting some of the larger natural history specimens and was more at ease with his drawings of smaller less challenging creatures and objects such as insects and butterflies and Indigenous implements and weapons But the whole compilation now known as the lsquoSkottowe Manuscriptrsquo has a compelling naive charm and is indisputably the first such comprehensive effort created in the colony2

In addition Skottowersquos recording of Aboriginal nomenclature carefully inscribed in Brownersquos clerkrsquos hand provides invaluable linguistic information which would otherwise have been lost

After the Skottowe Manuscript Brownersquos artistic efforts concentrated almost exclusively on portraits of Aborigines In his last years in Newcastle and after January 1817 when he returned to Sydney where he lived until his death in 1824 Browne painted multiple versions of full length or head-and-shoulders portrayals of some of well known Awabakal

such as Burigon (also known as Burgun and Long Jack) and Magill and Worimi chiefs Cobbawn Wogi and Coola-benn and his wife Wambla (or Wambella)

There has been debate about whether Browne was trying to portray his subjects as faithful renditions or whether these images were conscious exercises in caricature3 When compared with his rather stilted style in the Skottowe Manuscript it seems that these portraits are Brownersquos attempts to capture realistically individuals whom he knew by name and any inadequacies are in his artistic abilities In so doing he left a body of work about people whose images would otherwise be non-existant

Thomas Skottowe was recalled from his position as commandant in February 1814 and sailed with his regiment to Ceylon He died in 1821 leaving almost no trace apart from the legacy of his Newcastle sojourn which included not only his Manuscript but also several children by his convict mistress

His replacement as commandant was Lieutenant Thomas Thompson of the incoming 46th Regiment Thompson

left little mark as a cultural pioneer and is best remembered as the recipient of an effusive dedication in Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux said to be the first full-length autobiography written in the colony while the multiple-convicted Vaux was on one of his stints of punishment in Newcastle The Memoirs also include the first dictionary compiled in Australia the famous Vocabulary of the Flash Language which is dedicated to Thomas Skottowe another of Vauxrsquos Newcastle commandants

My time here passes quietly with the duties of my situation and my own rescources [sic]

assisted by four unfortunate artists I seldom find time hangs heavy

(James Wallis Newcastle December 1817 Letter to JT Campbell)

The name of Governor Macquariersquos next choice of commandant Captain James Wallis also of the 46th Regiment has survived in places throughout the Newcastle and Hunter regions even if many of the historical associations are often no longer remembered

left selecT speciMens

froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne


4 Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era 5

top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes

wallis Joseph lyceTT

and walTer presTon

c 1817-18 James wallis

Joseph lyceTT

It was during Wallisrsquos term as commandant from June 1816 to December 1818 that the apogee of Newcastlersquos first phase of development as a settlement occurred and its early artistic peak was reached

At the time of his appointment Wallis was thirty-one years old Irish-born from Cork and a career soldier His instructions from Macquarie on taking charge in Newcastle were clear to expand the capacity for larger numbers of convicts to extract more coal timber and lime mortar and to upgrade public buildings and housing to a standard befitting a properly managed settlement This Wallis achieved in his two-and-a-halfshyyears of command even if the quality of the

Illus Portrait of Wallis ndash see Richard Neville for this

construction work left much to be desired as Royal Commissioner JT Bigge described in detail in his report of 1822 to the British Parliament

But these official projects were not Wallisrsquos only preoccupation during his Newcastle years He was an amateur artist who enjoyed the diversions of landscape sketching assisted by his new camera lucida device4 as well as hunting and exploring expeditions in the surrounding countryside often in the company of local Indigenous people and especially with Burigon Chief of the Awabakal with whom he seems to have established a particular rapport As Wallis recalled many years later lsquoI now remember poor Jack [ie Burigon] the black savage ministering to my pleasures fishing kangaroo hunting guiding me throrsquo trackless forests with more kindly feelings than I do many of my own colour kindred amp nationrsquo5

Wallisrsquos artistic pursuits received added impetus when he found that amongst his convict charges were former forgers with skills as painters and engravers Wallis decided to harness these talents for some private work of his own His star recruit was Joseph Lycett from Staffordshire (UK) who may have worked when young as a china painter in the Potteries Lycett was described as lsquoportrait and min[iature] painterrsquo in his convict records He had certainly learned to engrave on copper and to use a printing press having been transported for utilising this expertise to forge banknotes and which he repeated in Sydney leading to his being shipped to Newcastle

Under Wallisrsquos direction Lycettrsquos artistic talents blossomed with the production of several impressive large oil paintings of Newcastle drawings for engravings for which Wallis later took most of the credit and delicate well-executed and observed watercolours of the Aboriginal people and local birds and plants In addition there were other images which Lycett took back to England for his final production the illustrated colour plate book Views of New South Wales and Van Diemenrsquos Land 6 published in London in 1824

Wallisrsquos artistic pursuits received added impetus when he found that amongst his convict charges were former forgers with skills as painters and engravers

In all these media and techniques Lycett showed competence and ability For example his oil on wooden panel of a night corroboree in moonlight on the shores of Newcastle Harbour with Nobbyrsquos Island in the background is a dramatic and accomplished exercise in chiaroscuro and like no other early 19th century colonial painting on this scale His Inner View of Newcastle is a bravura romantic response to the thrilling expanse of the vista from above Christ Church brought to life with the tantalising addition of a tableau of foreground figures who rather than the customary generic types may well show Wallis accompanied by his lsquoScotch sergeantrsquo hunting dogs and the lsquoKing of Newcastlersquo returning home after a day in the field7

top corroBoree aT

newcasTle c 1818 Joseph

lyceTT oil painTing on

wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh

wales 1824 Joseph lyceTT

eTching and aquaTinT


Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer

and iTs Branches new

souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817

printed on George Howersquos press at the Sydney Gazette office One set was presented to Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie and in 1914 this was acquired with the Macquarie Papers by the Mitchell Library In 1821 the plates were later issued by renowned London publisher Rudolph Ackermann as a handsome folio volume with accompanying text one of the outstanding illustrated books of the Macquarie era10 Preston received an absolute pardon on 15 January 1819

this place would afford infinite entertainment It is certainly a new world

a new creation Every plant every shell tree fish animal insect different from the old

(Thomas Fyshe Palmer Sydney 1795 Letter to unknown recipient)

The piegraveces de reacutesistance of Wallisrsquos Newcastle artistic endeavours are the Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest and its close relation the Dixson Galleries Collectorrsquos Chest These objects have no precedents or successors in the colonial pantheon but stand as testimony to a unique collaborative venture celebrating the exotic strange and the beautiful in their place of origin on the banks of the Hunter River11

Wallisrsquos template or pattern for the chests is not known but as a travelling military

The crowning glory of Wallisrsquos rapid public building construction program in Newcastle was Christ Church on the hill overlooking the town It has been suggested that Lycett may have assisted Wallis with its design incorporating the short-lived tall steeple Lycett certainly painted two oils on board as altar decorations which did not survive the demolition of the church in 1885 Whether he also assisted Wallis with the design of the cliff-top gaol which masqueraded as a neo-Palladian villa complete with decorative urns as finials is not known

Lycettrsquos Newcastle oils are the first major sequence of Australian landscape paintings in this medium definitively created in situ by a known artist in response to a specific locale and that alone makes them highly significant in Australian colonial art8 Oil paints were a rare commodity in the colony and it seems likely that Wallis provided Lycett with a set of paints Lycettrsquos improvised supports for his oil paintings mdash wooden panels from boxes or other furniture and canvas probably government-issue sail cloth mdash are another indication of the scarcity of local art supplies After leaving Newcastle and Wallisrsquos supervision and returning to Sydney then to England in 1822 Lycett never again painted in oils

On discovering there was another Newcastle convict with artistic skills under his command Wallisrsquos plans became more ambitious Walter Preston was a competent engraver who had already produced most of the plates for Absalom Westrsquos views of New South Wales Lycett and Wallis supplied drawings of local scenery to Preston who set to work using lsquocommon sheet copper employed for coppering the bottoms of shipsrsquo9 The copper was almost certainly from official supplies put to an unusual use like the sail cloth which Wallis diverted to Lycett for his paintings

By January 1819 when Wallis was back in Sydney awaiting his passage to India en route to England twelve plates had been

officer he would have been well aware of the type of campaign furniture to which their designs relate Whatever the original model the complex process of creating the chests required precise coordination at each step of their construction between the cabinetshymakers artist natural history collectors preservers and taxidermists with Wallis as the architect of the whole ensuring that each component fitted with the rest

left an hisTorical

accounT of The colony

of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69


imAgeS The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69

Every part of the chests relates to their place of origin The principal timbers are Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata) and Australian rosewood (Dysoxylum fraserianum) sometimes called rose mahogany Both types of wood were cut by convicts from the banks of the Hunter River and Wallis often sent lengths to Sydney at the Governorrsquos request either for use in Sydney or for Macquarie to ship to Britain as gifts for patrons and friends

The convict cabinet-makers in Newcastle most likely to have been selected from the ranks for this great albeit undocumented task were two associates Patrick Riley and William Temple By November 1816 Riley originally from Dublin was principal carpenter in Newcastle where he was joined in September 1817 by Temple also a cabinet-maker and carpenter Artist Joseph Lycett was enlisted to decorate the internal cedar panels with thirteen oil paintings of which eight depict scenes in and around Newcastle in addition

to the spectacular still life of local fish on the inner box lids All three men associated with creating the chests were granted pardons by the Governor on 28 November 1821 shortly before his departure from the colony

The displays of natural history specimens in their glass-topped cases and trays are a tour de force and nothing like them exists from this period of Australian history There are hundreds of insects butterflies moths shells seaweeds and algae and eighty stuffed birds all then native to the Hunter region and to this day in remarkably good condition By any standards it was a major undertaking to collect preserve and arrange such a large range and quantity of specimens over a relatively short period of time and it seems fair to assume that Wallisrsquos friendly associations with Burigon and his people would have been most beneficial in the enterprise as the Aborigines were renowned for their expert skills in catching wildlife

The Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest was probably completed by early August 1818 and presented to Governor and Mrs Macquarie when they made their second official visit to Newcastle this time with their three-year-old son Lachlan Junior to inspect the new buildings and for Macquarie to tour the Lower Hunter Valley with Wallis The visit concluded with the Governor laying the foundation stone of the pier named in his honour to link Nobbyrsquos Island with the mainland followed by a night-time ceremonial corroboree performed by Burigon and his clan Macquariersquos thanks to Wallis for his hospitality and achievements were conveyed by the Governorrsquos Secretary John Thomas Campbell after the vice-regal party returned to Sydney The Governor was lsquoin Raptures rsquo12 by all he had seen and done on the tour


In 2010 in an elegant and imaginative commemoration of the bicentennial anniversary of Macquariersquos governorship of New South Wales and his association with Newcastle the Newcastle Art Gallery commissioned a contemporary interpretation of the Collectorrsquos Chest thus linking the past and the present and bridging two hundred years13

At Sunset we could see the Settlements of Newcastle and the Light soon

afterwards Nobby Island being distinctly seen before it became dark

(Lachlan Macquarie 15 November 1821 Journal to the Settlements of

Port Macquarie and Newcastle)

The final military officerartist to depict Newcastle in the Macquarie era was Edward Close a Peninsular War veteran and lieutenant in the 48th Regiment Close was posted to Newcastle by then under the command of Brevet-Major James Morissett James Wallisrsquos successor In 1821ndash22 Close was the garrisonrsquos acting engineer of public works taking to his position with alacrity by supervising inter alia the extension of the breakwater to Nobbyrsquos Island constructing convict barracks at the Lumber Yard creating a chinoiserie-style pagoda structure to protect

the coal-burning shipsrsquo warning light on Signal Hill and building a large stone windmill above Christ Church

Closersquos training as a military engineer included tuition in drawing surveying and drafting and as with so many officers of his era stationed in far-flung parts of the world he put these skills to both personal and professional use14 Close was a particularly perceptive and pleasing amateur artist with a sharply observant eye confident technique as a watercolourist and a fine grasp of perspective and sense of colour

top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT

makeR scoTT miTchell

aRTisTs lionel Bawden

maRia feRnanda

caRdoso esme TimBeRy

louise weaveR philip

wolfhagen

below panoraMa of

newcasTle 1821 edwaRd

close waTeRcolouR

The Macquarie collecTorrsquos

chesT c 1818 XR 69


The grand finale of Closersquos military career

(he resigned to become a landowner in the Hunter Valley) and also of Macquarieshyera Newcastle is his ambitious panorama depicting a wide sweep of the settlement in its landscape setting Each of the buildings is carefully identified and delineated in a triumphant testimony to the town and its builders recording what turned out to be the end of this phase in its colonial history and the end of its time as the artistic centre of the colony in the Macquarie era

Lachlan Macquarie made a farewell visit to Newcastle and the Lower Hunter region in November 1821 He continued to extol the achievements of his commandants especially James Wallis and left a final legacy in a liberal scattering of place names recalling himself his family and his officers The last visual summation of Newcastle in the late-Macquarie period came a few years later in 1828ndash9 when newly appointed Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell made details surveys and sketches of the town including the only detailed representation of Closersquos pagoda on Signal Hill

Elizabeth Ellis Emeritus Curator Mitchell Library

1 John Purcell Letter to JT Campbell 6 July 1810 in NSW Colonial Secretaryrsquos Papers AO reel 6066 41804 p 22a Lieut Purcell preceded Thomas Skottowe as commandant in Newcastle

2 The Skottowe Manuscript was finally published 175 years after its creation Select Specimens from Nature of the Birds Animals ampc ampc of New South Wales Newcastle New South Wales 1813 facsimile vol 1 edited with an introductory essay by Tim Bonyhady vol 2 transcript of the manuscript with natural history commentary by John Calaby Hordern House Sydney 1988

3 Richard Neville Richard Browne A Focus Exhibition [brochure] Newcastle Art Gallery Newcastle 2012

4 Ian Jack lsquoJames Wallis the Hawkesbury and the Camera Lucida rsquo History Magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society no 83 June 2005 p 2

5 James Wallis Memoir c 1835 1 leaf ms in Album of Manuscripts and Artworks PXD 1008 vol 1 f 1 Mitchell Library State Library of NSW

6 The Van Diemenrsquos Land views are most likely after drawings by George William Evans not Lycett For a discussion on this issue and the definitive work on Joseph Lycett see John McPhee (ed) Joseph Lycett Convict Artist Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales Sydney 2006 p 151

7 James Wallis Memoir

8 It has never been definitively established whether the four oil paintings of Sydney painted in the 1790s (three in Mitchell Library one in Art Gallery of South Australia) were done in the colony JW Lewinrsquos Fish Catch Sydney Harbour c 1813 (AGSA) is a still life and the first oil indisputably painted in Australia

9 James Wallis An Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependant Settlements Printed for R[udolph] Ackermann Repository of Arts Strand [London] by J Moyes Greville Street [London] 1821 p1

10 Ibid

11 For a detailed account of the chests see Elizabeth Ellis Rare amp CuriousThe Secret History of Governor Macquariersquos Collectorsrsquo Chest The Miegunyah Press Melbourne 2010

12 JT Campbell Letter to James Wallis 11 August 1818 in NSW Colonial Secretaryrsquos Papers AO reel 6006 43499 p 12

13 See Lisa Slade Curious Colony A Twenty First Century Wunderkammer Newcastle Region Art Gallery Newcastle 2010

14 During the first three decades of European settlement in Australia military and naval officers along with convict artists mostly ex-forgers produced the majority of artworks done in the colony Major James Taylor a fellow officer of Edward Close is the best known artist of the 48th Regiment in NSW for his celebrated panorama of Sydney

Above governMenT

house newcasTle porT

hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close

(aTTRiB) waTeRcolouR

Right newcasTle in

1829 Thomas miTchell

ink dRawing

Endnotes


l a diviNa commedia di

mulubiNb a The arT aNd s cieNce

oF Time Travel We know thanks to archaeological findings that for

at least 6500 years human beings inhabited the landscape of Newcastle (Mulubinba)

In 2009 an Aboriginal hearth and factory was uncovered at the former Palais Royale site in Hunter Street West Among the works of this Exhibition if you look closely at the painting by Joseph Lycett Newcastle NSW looking towards Prospect Hill c 1816 you can see the site as a little speck of white paint at the right hand side of the painting It is also pictured in a sketch within the Wallis Album entitled `View on Throsbyrsquos Creek near Newcastle N S Walesrsquo

Within a two metre rectangular trench was unearthed over five and a half thousand artefacts created by Aboriginal people across three waves of human occupation on the shores of a little creek From 1810 the Government Farm had been established there along with the Commandantrsquos cottage The artefacts manufactured there on what came to be known as Cottage Creek were probably traded across the region and across many tribal territories over millennia

Aboriginal people lived in this land they called Mulubinba named after an indigenous fern called the Mulubin The Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld a missionary who arrived in Newcastle in 1825 lived at the Commandantrsquos Cottage for around a year He and his family had been burgled on three occasions upon arrival so it was a relief when on a Wednesday evening the 11th May 1825 the Aborigines assembled around his house cooking a kangaroo and invited the family to see their dance Meeting and dancing on the site would continue right up until the end of the Palais Royale era

While there Threkeld met Magill an Aboriginal man and both struck up a close friendship which was to produce the first systematic study of an Aboriginal language anywhere in the country Threlkeld recorded various aspects of tribal culture and life that he experienced as he collected data for his language work It is interesting that Threlkeld rarely referred to indigenous names for the Aboriginal tribes preferring to refer to them as the ldquoNewcastle Triberdquo or ldquoPort Stephens Triberdquo etc However it is in his grammar exercises that he recorded that the Newcastle people were called Mulubinbakal (men) and Mulubinbakalleen (female) Since 1892 these people of Newcastle have come to be known as the Awabakal people newcasTle nsw looking

Towards prospecT hill

c 1818 Joseph lyceTT

oil painTing on canvas


Right Magil

corroBoree dance

c 1819ndash20RichaRd

BRowne waTeRcolouR

and BodycolouR sv147

Around 8000 years ago the sea levels rose creating an island at the mouth of the Hunter River Aboriginal people called this island Whibayganba and home to a dreaming story about a giant kangaroo

Unfortunately the archaeological physical evidence that could have complemented the documentary evidence recorded by Threlkeld was systematically destroyed over the two hundred years since European settlement with a major event occurring in 2008 during the demolition works It became clear from the archaeological report that two hundred of lsquoourrsquo years had erased around 1933 years of possible scientific information we may have learned about its Aboriginal history

In spite of all this how wonderful would it be to travel back in time to see these people again speak with them and learn what was taught over thousands of years

While physicists maintain that travel into the future is possible (arguably we do it all the time) unfortunately time travel into the past is forbidden Or is it

Around 8000 years ago the sea levels rose creating an island at the mouth of the Hunter River Aboriginal people called this island Whibayganba and home to a dreaming story about a giant kangaroo who remains imprisoned within the rock occasionally shaking himself from time to time causing rocks to fall From 1810 the Europeans began to call the island lsquoNobbysrsquo at a settlement that had been founded as a prison within a prison and the great kangaroorsquos movements came to be known as ldquoearthquakesrdquo

In the original eye-sketch of Hunterrsquos River that resides in the Hydrographic Office in London drawn by Lieutenant John Shortland in 1797 is an official record of Aboriginal people in this area He marked the presence of ldquoNativesrdquo as living in the inner harbour of Newcastle along the present day Honeysuckle and also at a point now corresponding to the point just underneath the exit of the Bridge on the Stockton peninsula By the time this plan was first published in 1810 the ldquoNativesrdquo had disappeared from the printed versions

In 1801 another European visitor Francis Barrallier created a more detailed and accurate survey of the Hunter River landscape Aboard the Lady Nelson as part of the Survey Mission under the command of Lieutenant Grant and Colonel Paterson he created a snapshot of the Aboriginal landscape at point of European contact The names of the islands and localities are to us today all mixed up What he termed the lsquoHunter Riverrsquo is now our Williams River and his lsquoPaterson Riverrsquo is now our Hunter

Above noBByrsquos island

and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820

edwaRd close (aTTRiB)

waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817

edwaRd close ink and

wash dRawing pXa 1187


Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817

The actual Paterson River he did not chart during the initial survey mission of June to July 1801 These lines drawn upon parchment are a white manrsquos representation of the great rivers that have flowed for thousands of years and sustained the inhabitants of the Region As the lines drew the landscape this was a white manrsquos magic that captured the land for the Crown This would be the key to the future exploitation of the Regionrsquos resources the coal the timber the lime salt and most importantly the fresh water and fertile lands They sustained the fledgling colony and continued to sustain it to nationhood

Barrallier apparently returned to Coal River in October 1801 as a presiding magistrate along with Dr Mason at the Court of Inquiry into the misconduct of Corporal Wixstead Around this time he travelled back up the to the Paterson River to complete the survey begun four months prior This plan is now lost but we know from another plan by him dated 1803 in the National Archives of the United Kingdom that he did complete it as the three branches of the rivers are shown

The lines drawn upon parchment are a white manrsquos representation of the great rivers that have flowed for thousands of years and sustained the inhabitants of the Region

It is therefore tantalising to view within this exhibition the plan by unknown artist and mapmaker Port Hunter and its Branches New South Wales c1819 as it shows all three branches and might be exactly what Francis Barrallierrsquos missing plan might have looked like at least its creator might have used Barrallierrsquos work in its execution

Both engravings by Richard Browne of Newcastle dated 1812 form a mini panorama when joined together The little houses all line up in the fledgling township in an idyllic fashion the fires emanating from the little home in the foreground is reflected in the fires of the Aborigines The fires can be seen across the landscape into the distant Port Stephens The two cultures coalesce in the smoke emanating from the hut and the campfires

In the distance the smoke of many fires can be seen this is a native landscape but we have things in common Those islands depicted can still be seen in the north arm of the Hunter River that has retained some of its ancient charm Christ Church and wharf also make their appearance and their representations will mark the development of the town over the years to come

A healthy relationship with history is crucial if we are to foster harmonious and progressive communities To ignore history is to become trapped within it unable to prudently move forward It is regrettable that this country was one of only four that did not ratify the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People back in 2007

below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh

wales RichaRd BRowne

walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a

disTanT view of poinT

sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving


Right uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn

naTive chief of ashe

island hunTers river

new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR

We have the equivalent of an ancient Etruscan civilisation that lies across this country with arguably the greatest concentration of rock art and engraving sites outside central Australia and yet we are largely ignorant of the Aboriginal

91528359

landscape beneath our feet

We have the equivalent of an ancient Etruscan civilisation that lies across this country with arguably the greatest concentration of rock art and engraving sites outside central Australia and yet we are largely ignorant of the Aboriginal landscape beneath our feet It is hoped that this Exhibition will enable a love of our many layered histories and shared experiences to find a new path to the future based upon the experiences of the past

Some of what we have lost has been redeemed for us We can thank the colonial artists who conceived and created their artworks here over one and a half centuries ago recording the native landscape its Aboriginal people and the fledgling overlay of European and indigenous cultures When we gaze into these works we are actually seeing the faces and landscapes through another personrsquos eyes that are no longer with us These artworks have enabled a conduit through time to open again between the dreaming of Aboriginal and European peoples which is a great privilege We can once again stand

face to face with Magill Cobbawn Wogi and Burigon and if we are silent enough we are able to hear their voices and their stories Thatrsquos time travel

This year (2013) marks the 10th

anniversary of the formation of The University of Newcastlersquos Coal River Working Party a historical research group utilising interdisciplinary academic expertise with community government and business to the study our Regionrsquos history Over the years our role has been to track down the original records relating to this region and to test their authenticity and expand its contextual knowledge On behalf of the historical research community of Newcastle and the Hunter I wish to convey our sheer delight and sincere appreciation to everyone that has made the Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Exhibition a reality

Gionni Di Gravio University Archivist and Chair Coal River Working Party


irsquom lookiNgiNTo The eyes

oF s omeoNe irsquom rel aTed Tohellip

Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era presents paintings watercolours prints and furniture which has been made by colonists and later collected and described in European institutions The traditional owners of the land the Awabakal people have a very different relationship to this material Their connection to it is much more visceral in these images is their history their ancestors and their lives Shane Frost (Awabakal Descendants Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation) amp Kerrie Brauer (Awabakal Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation) discussed the exhibition with Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville

Looking into Edward Closersquos Panorama of Newcastle reinforces for Shane and Kerrie that Treasures of Newcastle is going to give our people as Awabakal people that recognition that this is where our people have lived for thousands of years hellip we still go into the bush and do things you know we go to places and you feel that connection to that place its more than this is the place I belong This is where I come from and this is where our peoples lived for thousands of years hellip its an intimate knowledge of the area a really intimate knowledge

Closersquos juxtaposition of a corroboree taking place beneath the windmill (where the present day Obelisk in King Edward Park now sits) however illustrates the tremendous stresses colonisation inflicted on the Awabakal hellip the picture still shows that at that time Aboriginal people are still wanting to practice culture still carrying on their traditional practices even with the white fellas in the picture behind them Theyrsquore still there doing what theyrsquove been doing for thousands of years and we still do things today

Indeed ancient practices like tooth removal initiation ceremonies mdash inaccurately illustrated as it never would have been performed openly with women present mdash in Joseph Lycettrsquos Corroboree at Newcastle were beginning to be abandoned by the Awabakal That was part of the culture beginning to die at that time Theyrsquore starting to lose that in the culture They were still initiating people but you were starting to lose stuff starting to have an impact hellip [The Awabakal peoplesrsquo] livelihood around Newcastle was going because of colonisation so theyrsquore losing their food resources their way of life the way they live within the landscape

Yet the value of Lycettrsquos oil as record is acknowledged Lycett clearly had observed closely and knew well Awabakal people and their ceremonies the painting is an ambitious conflation of his knowledge into the one stunning romanticised image presumably commissioned by James Wallis

For Shane and Kerrie these images have a meaning beyond modern sensibilities which wants to see for example the Richard Browne watercolour portraits as racist caricatures I look back at these


[watercolours] and theyrsquore my relatives Irsquom looking into the face and the eyes of that relative all those years ago hellip Someone has painted that whose seen into this personrsquos eyes [the artist was] there theyrsquove looked into that personrsquos eyes theyrsquove touched that person Irsquom looking into the eyes of someone Irsquom related to hellip We donrsquot look like them today you know but I think inside we do Their genes they have we have inside of us

Brownersquos watercolours are valued for what they depict the precision of their record of material culture If he was trying to portray them in a kind of racist view wouldnrsquot be expected that he would have them in a position that would be more degrading or something he hasnrsquot done that he has just drawn them the way he has drawn them hellip I like it how he was included women hellip he has painted the tools and weapons that were used like she is holding here he includes the tools that the women use each day the fishing line the net bag the water carrier he is including things that the women would do

Shane and Kerrie enthusiastically mine archival records for critical information about the unique circumstances of the shared Awabakal European history in Newcastle They talk of the impact of the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld Methodist Missionary and linguist I do believe that Threlkeld was far ahead of his time People today will say that he was doing it for his own good He wasnrsquot doing it for his own good as far as I am concerned He was here trying to convert people but how many people then were trying to write the language of the people so that they could then learn the language by reading and writing in their own language hellip most people wanted to turn people around and make [Aboriginal people] read and write in English whereas he was doing it the opposite way round His learning our language so that he can write the language so that our people can have a written language

They note the contribution their people made to the collection of natural history specimens for Europeans Magil for example collected for Lieutenant William Coke in the 1820s The specimens in the

Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest were no doubt collected by our people We know they went out and done that I just think it is interesting that [the Chest] is going to come back here like that too that these things have probably mostly been collected by our people

The exhibition reinforces the unbroken link Awabakal people have had to their country despite two hundred years of European occupation The Art Galleryrsquos built here and those shops and houses are built on this land to me that doesnrsquot really mean anything because if people were to say ldquois this land significantrdquo Irsquod say yes it is You know as much as you want to build on it or desecrate it or do want ever they want to do to it it is still significant for me and our people it still holds that spiritual value that we connect with hellip no matter where you are yoursquove still got that feeling that this place is connected to me or Irsquom connected to this place it just gives you that sense of belonging

Awabakal people are still actively and proudly caring for country and ensuring that its stories are passed on We basically do that every week wersquore connecting with our countryhellip its part of our everyday life caring for country and caring for those sites so that those sites are still there for generations to come In a way its a re-establishment of culture too by pinpointing sites camp sites napping sites grinding groove sites scarred trees stone arrangements shelters rock shelters rock shelters with arthellip

The sites visited and used by the Awabakal people documented in Treasures from Newcastle still have meaning and connection to their descendants today So a stone artefact or a set of grinding grooves or a scar on a tree is no different to that so I can go and sit down at these places and I can look around and say well they sat here they done this hellip this is where they were camping this is where they ate So you have that physical connection through the landscape and whatrsquos left in the landscape and that stuffrsquos still here in Newcastle even though its got all this stuff built on it

Although Treasures from Newcastle might imply a culture broken from its history for Awabakal people today the

exhibition is simply evidence of the continuum of their stories from the past through to today While there is no denying the extraordinary disruption the last two hundred years have brought to culture similarly there is no denying that culture continues to be central to Awabakal people passed from elders and shared with the next generation Theyrsquove been brought up going and learning things and seeing things and being told the stories same as we have so its passing that knowledge on We see it as a legacy hellipthatrsquos come through to us and so therefore we pass it on hellip its a legacy passed on from them that we have now to pass on to those coming in the future


iTem lisT

Introduction

Edward Close Panorama of Newcastle 1821 watercolour seven sheets laid onto cloth backing cut in three sections 415 x 364 cm (approx overall dimensions) Purchased 1926 Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales Inscribed in ink third sheet from right lsquoNB This Corrobory [sic] has no business here as it is never danced in the day-time Taken at and finished in Newcastle on Hunter River June 11th 1821 EC Closersquo

The Collectorsrsquo Chests

The Macquarie Collectorrsquos Chest c 1818 Cabinet makers Patrick Riley and William Temple Artist Joseph Lycett Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata) and rosewood mahogany (Dysoxylum fraserianum) case and internal fittings with glass and gilt decoration pine and black paint stringing brass (handles escutcheons and other fittings capitals on feet) oil paintings on cedar panels preserved natural history specimens and artefacts 685 x 722 x 572 cm (closed) 665 x 1435 x 572 cm and 665 x 1435 x 99 cm (open) Purchased 2004 Lachlan Macquarie and family thence to the Drummond (Viscounts Strathallan) and Roberts families Scotland Sold April 1989 at Sothebyrsquos Melbourne thence to Mrs Ruth Simon Sydney Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

The Newcastle Chest 2010 Cabinet maker Scott Mitchell Artists Lionel Bawden Maria Fernanda Cardoso Esme Timbery Louise Weaver Philip Wolfhagen Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata) New South Wales rosewood mahogany (Dysoxylum fraserianum) river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) case and internal fittings tartan fabric glass and brass fittings manufactured and created objects preserved natural history specimens oil paintings on wood panels 530 x 710 x 46 cm (closed) Commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery Purchased 2010 with the assistance of James and Judy Hart Robert and Lindy Henderson Valerie Ryan Newcastle Art Gallery Society Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Thomas Skottowe Richard Browne Walter Preston

Richard Browne Walter Preston Newcastle in New South Wales with a distant view of Point Stephen 1812 engraving 228 x 374 cm (image) 276 x 408 cm (plate) Purchased 1971 Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Richard Browne Walter Preston View of Hunters River near Newcastle New South Wales 1812 engraving 228 x 374 cm (image) 276 x 408 cm (plate) Purchased 1971 Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Thomas Skottowe Richard Browne Select Specimens From Nature of the Birds Animals ampc ampc of New South Wales Collected and Arranged by Thomas Skottowe Esqr The Drawings By TR Browne NSW Newcastle New South Wales 1813 leather bound (not original) album containing 29 watercolour drawings on paper and accompanying pages of ink manuscript 31 x 20 x 17 cm (closed) drawings 24 x 26 cm (or smaller) Bequeathed 1907 by David Scott Mitchell Presented 1852 by A Cahill to his son Frank Cahill Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales


Richard Browne Natives fishing in a bark canoe New South Wales 1819 watercolour and bodycolour 335 x 251 cm Purchased 1954 from Francis Edwards Ltd London with the bequest of Sir William Dixson Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Wambella c 1819 watercolour and bodycolour 322 x 254 cm Purchased 1954 from Francis Edwards Ltd London with the bequest endowment of Sir William Dixson Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Long Jack [also known as Burgun or Burigon] King of Newcastle New S Wales c 1819 watercolour and bodycolour 322 x 252 cm Purchased 1954 from Francis Edwards Ltd London with the bequest endowment of Sir William Dixson Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Burgun 1820 watercolour and bodycolour 305 x 220 cm Purchased 2010 with assistance from Robert and Lindy Henderson Newcastle Art Gallery Society Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation and the community Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Richard Browne Wambela 1819 watercolour and bodycolour 336 x 25 cm Purchased July 1992 Christiersquos Dallhold collection sale Melbourne Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Magil Corroboree dance c 1819-20 watercolour and bodycolour 235 x 315 cm Purchased October 1987 Sothebyrsquos Sydney Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Cobbawn Wogi Native Chief of Ashe Island Hunters River NS Wales 1819 watercolour and bodycolour 275 x 345 cm Purchased 1981 from Bernard Quaritch Ltd London Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Richard Browne Coola-benn Native Chief of Ashe Island Hunters River New South Wales 1820 watercolour and bodycolour 31 x 22 cm Purchased 2010 with assistance from Robert and Lindy Henderson Newcastle Art Gallery Society Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation and the community Newcastle Art Gallery collection

James Wallis Joseph Lycett Walter Preston

James Wallis An Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements in illustration of twelve views engraved by W Preston a convict from drawings taken on the spot by Captain Wallis London Printed for R Ackermann Repository of Arts Strand by J Moyes Greville Street 1821 engravings with letterpress in bound volume folio Bequeathed 1907 by David Scott Mitchell Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis [Joseph Lycett] Walter Preston Black Swans of New South Wales View on Reedrsquos Mistake River NSW c 1818 engraving with etching 184 x 258 cm (image) 241 x 348 cm (plate) 318 x 464 cm (paper) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan (widow of James David Drummond 10th Viscount Strathallan) Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis [Joseph Lycett] Walter Preston Kangaroos of New South Wales View from Seven-Mile Hill near Newcastle NSW c 1818 engraving with etching 182 x 26 cm (image) 241 x 348 cm (plate) 315 x 465 cm (paper) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis [Joseph Lycett] Walter Preston View of Hunters river Newcastle c 1818 engraving with etching 182 x 26 cm (image) 241 x 348 cm (plate) 315 x 465 cm (paper) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis [Joseph Lycett] Walter Preston Newcastle Hunterrsquos River New South Wales c 1818 engraving with etching 304 x 457 cm (image) 39 x 521 cm (plate) 44 x 633 cm (paper) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis Joseph Lycett Album of original watercolours drawings and engravings by James Wallis Joseph Lycett and Walter Preston c 1817-18 laid down on additional leaves inserted into An Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales by James Wallis (London 1821) folio Purchased October 2011 from Gardner Galleries London Ontario (Canada) Presented 1857 by Major James Wallis to his wife Mary Ann thence in 1866 to Wallisrsquos nephew Lieut-Col Alexander Tayler Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales


James Wallis Account of Burigon Chieftain of the Newcastle tribe and his brother Dick c 1835 ink manuscript 23 x 17 cm Purchased 2006 from Robert G Kearns Toronto (Canada) From album sold May 1989 Christiersquos South Kensington (UK) Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis To the Memory of Brother Officers Cove [also known as Cobh or Queenstown Ireland] July 17th 1835 watercolour ink manuscript and collage 232 x 205 cm mounted on card 268 x 208 cm Purchased 2006 from Robert G Kearns Toronto (Canada) From album sold May 1989 Christiersquos South Kensington (UK) Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis My dog Fly c 1818 watercolour 157 x 228 cm Purchased 2006 from Robert G Kearns Toronto (Canada) From album sold May 1989 Christiersquos South Kensington (UK) Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Lachlan Macquarie Journal to and from Newcastle 27 July ndash 9 August 1818 four leaves ink manuscript 20 x 16 cm (page size) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Joseph Lycett Corroboree at Newcastle c 1818 oil on wooden panel 705 x 1224 cm Presented 1938 by Sir William Dixson who purchased the painting in 1937 from Melbourne bookseller AH Spencer who purchased it in the same year from the Museum Book Store London Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

James Wallis [Joseph Lycett] Walter Preston Corrobborree or Dance of the Natives of New South Wales New Holland c 1818 engraving with etching 376 x 567 cm (image) 441 x 631 cm (paper) Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Joseph Lycett View with Cattle in Foreground Hunter River c 1818 oil on canvas 603 x 914 cm Purchased 1961 with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund London Bequeathed 1859 by the late Major James Wallis Prestbury near Cheltenham (UK) to Captain Thomas and Mrs Ann Hilton (Wallisrsquos niece) Nackington Kent (UK) Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Joseph Lycett Inner View of Newcastle c 1818 oil on canvas 61 x 914 cm Purchased 1961 with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund London Bequeathed 1859 by the late Major James Wallis Prestbury near Cheltenham (UK) to Captain Thomas and Mrs Ann Hilton (Wallisrsquos niece) Nackington Kent (UK) Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Joseph Lycett Newcastle New South Wales looking towards Prospect Hill c 1818 oil on wooden panel 444 x 685 cm Purchased October 1991 at Christiersquos London with the assistance of Port Waratah Coal Services Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Joseph Lycett Views in Australia or New South Wales amp Van Diemenrsquos Land Delineated In Fifty Views By J Lycett Artist to Major General Macquarie late Governor of those Colonies London J Souter 73 St Paulrsquos Church Yard 1824-25 hand-coloured etchings with aquatint lithograph title-page and letter press text in bound volume oblong folio Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Joseph Lycett Newcastle New South Wales from Views in Australia 1824 hand-coloured etching with aquatint 177 x 271 cm (image) 233 x 325 cm (plate) Purchased 1972 Newcastle Art Gallery collection

Joseph Lycett The Sugar Loaf Mountain near Newcastle New South Wales from Views in Australia 1824 hand-coloured etching with aquatint 177 x 271 cm (image) 233 x 325 cm (plate) Purchased 1968 Newcastle Art Gallery collection


Edward Close

Artist mapmaker unknown (possibly Edward Close) Port Hunter and its Branches New South Wales c 1819-20 ink wash pencil 402 x 498 cm (map) within ruled borders 424 x 52 cm laid down on linen 483 x 60 cm (sheet) Bequeathed 1952 by Sir William Dixson Dixson Library State Library of New South Wales

Edward Close (attributed) Hunter River c 1819-20 watercolour with pencil manuscript annotations 244 x 417 cm Owned by David Berry (brother of Alexander Berry) presented to Helena Forde (neacutee Scott) daughter of AW Scott of Ash Island by the Hon Dr James Norton (Norton Smith amp Co Lawyers were trustees of Berryrsquos estate)Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Artist unknown Ca la watum Ba a native of the Coal River c 1819 pencil and wash drawing 228 x 184 cm Purchased 1914 with the Lachlan Macquarie Papers from Margaret Viscountess Strathallan Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Edward Close View of Newcastle c 1817 ink and wash drawing in bound sketchbook 228 x 286 cm (image) Purchased May 2009 Sothebyrsquos Melbourne Previously in a private collection United Kingdom by descent through the family of the artist Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Edward Close Nobbyrsquos Island and pier Newcastle January 23rd 1820 watercolour and ink 247 x 425 cm Presented 1951 by Sir William Dixson Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Edward Close Government House Newcastle Port Hunter ndash January 31st 1820 watercolour 202 x 382 (image) within ruled borders 208 x 39 cm 243 x 422 cm (sheet) Presented 1951 by Sir William Dixson Dixson Galleries Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

a6478001 Epilogue

Richard Read Senior (attributed) Miniature portraits of Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie and Lachlan Junior c 1817-18 watercolours on ivory in black japanned frames with metal leaf-shaped clasps and double hanging loops 83 x 69 cm or smaller (images sight) 15 x 134 cm or smaller (frames) Presented 1965 by Miss Mary Bather Moore and Mr Thomas Cliffe Bather Moore Hobart First presented by Lachlan Macquarie to Lieutenant John Cliffe Watts Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Thomas Mitchell Newcastle in 1829 ink drawing 22 x 354 cm in manuscript journal Illustrations from Progress in Public Works amp Roads in NSW 1827-1855 Bequeathed 1907 by David Scott Mitchell Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales

Thomas Mitchell Newcastle ( from 1st Stn) [ie First Surveying Station Signal Hill now Fort Scratchley] 1828 ink wash and pencil drawing 12 x 39 cm in Field Book ndash Port Jackson amp Newcastle 1828 Bequeathed 1907 by David Scott Mitchell Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales


36 Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

A State Library of NSW amp Newcastle Art Gallery partnership exhibition Sponsored by Noble Resources International Australia

B i Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era

A State Library of NSW amp Newcastle Art Gallery partnership exhibition

Sponsored by Noble Resources International Australia



Foreword



















The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69


Right Black swan


froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne





















froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne



top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes


and walTer presTon


Joseph lyceTT










top corroBoree aT



wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh




Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue









Foreword



















The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69


Right Black swan


froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne





















froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne



top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes


and walTer presTon


Joseph lyceTT










top corroBoree aT



wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh




Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue















The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69


Right Black swan


froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne





















froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne



top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes


and walTer presTon


Joseph lyceTT










top corroBoree aT



wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh




Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue








Right Black swan


froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne





















froM naTure 1813

Thomas skoTTowe

RichaRd BRowne



top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes


and walTer presTon


Joseph lyceTT










top corroBoree aT



wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh




Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue








top uT am vellupTaT

oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

bottom alBuM

of original

waTercolours

drawings and

engravings By JaMes


and walTer presTon


Joseph lyceTT










top corroBoree aT



wooden panel dg 228

bottom The sugar

loaf MounTain near

newcasTle new souTh




Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue








Right inner view of

newcasTle c 1818

Joseph lyceTT oil

painTing on canvas

below porT hunTer


souTh wales deTail

c 1819 aRTisT and

mapmakeR unknown

ink wash pencil dl

cB 817












left an hisTorical


of new souTh wales

and iTs dependenT

seTTleMenTs london

1821 James wallis

pRinTed Book wiTh

engRaved views

below The Macquarie


c 1818 XR 69




c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue










c 1818 XR 69















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue
















top The newcasTle

chesT 2010 caBineT



maRia feRnanda



wolfhagen

below panoraMa of


close waTeRcolouR


chesT c 1818 XR 69















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue





















10 Ibid





Above governMenT


hunTer JanuaRy 31sT

1820 edwaRd close


Right newcasTle in


ink dRawing

Endnotes














Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue




















Right Magil

corroBoree dance


BRowne waTeRcolouR










and pier newcasTle

January 23rd 1820


waTeRcolouR and ink

dg sv1B 10

below view of

newcasTle c 1817




Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue








Above porT hunTer


souTh wales c 1819

aRTisT and mapmakeR

unknown ink wash

pencil dl cB 817








below left view of

hunTers river near

newcasTle new souTh


walTeR pResTon

engRaving

below Right

newcasTle in new

souTh wales wiTh a


sTephen RichaRd

BRowne walTeR

pResTon engRaving



oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue









oTaTionesT unT as

nosanTi 1898

left coola-Benn



new souTh wales

1820 RichaRd BRowne

waTeRcolouR and

BodycolouR


91528359





























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue




























iTem lisT

Introduction







































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue





































Edward Close







a6478001 Epilogue







treasuresofnecastlefromthemacquarieera a · the discovery of the wallis album in a cupboard in...

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